This follows Wednesday’s news that the first H1N1 patient, Le Quang Tuan, has completely recovered from the disease, also known as swine flu.

The three patients, however, will not be discharged from hospital until next week, Nghiem said.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports say initial tests done Thursday at HCMC Children’s Hospital No. 2 on a six-year-old Vietnamese American child returning from the US have come up positive for the virus.

The HCMC International Quarantine Center at Tan Son Nhat Airport Thursday detected six people with body temperatures above 38 degrees Celsius and quarantined them.

Reported by Thanh Tung